VersionsEssays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism [English, California, 2003]
Kürt Milliyetçiliğinin Kökenleri [Türkçe, İstanbul, 2005]
Essays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism
Of the major nationalist movements which have shaped the modern Middle East, Kurdish nationalism alone has failed to establish a national state. Alongside the Palestinians and until recently the Armenians, the Kurds have remained a stateless nation. But while there exists an extensive literature on the genesis and development of other Middle Eastern nationalisms—Turkish, Arab and in particular Palestinian—historical and theoretical debate on the origins and structure of Kurdish nationalism has been notably scanty.
This collection initiates, such a debate, investigating the origins of Kurdish nationalism from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives, and exploring its implications for the present. Its aim is to analyze arguments about the origins of Kurdish nationalism not only as competing historical accounts, but also, and more crucially, as strategic debates about the identity and legitimacy of the Kurdish nation.
Contents
Preface / vii
Acknowledgements / ix
Notes on contributors / xi
Note on transliterations / xiii
Introduction: nationalism and the question of origins / 1
Abbas Vali
Some remarks on Kurdish historiographical discourse in Turkey (1919-1980) / 14
Hamit Bozarsalan
Ehmedî Xanî's Mem û Zîn and its role in the emergence of Kurdish national awareness/40
Martin van Bruinessen
Genealogies of the Kurds: constructions of nation and national identity in Kurdish historical writing / 58
Abbas Vali
The making of Kurdish identity: pre-20th century historical and literary discourses / 106
Amir Hassanpour
Kurdish nationalism in Turkey: from tacit contract to rebellion (1919-1925) / 163
Hamit Bozarslan
Kurds and Kurdish nationalism in mandatory Syria: politics, culture and identity / 191
Nelida Fuccaro
Index / 219
PREFACE
I am delighted as Mazda publishers’ Kurdish studies series editor to offer readers Essays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism as our fourth book in the series. The contributions are the most theoretically innovative, conceptually insightful, and historiographically comprehensive essays of the foremost scholars presently working in the fields of Kurdish nationalism, Middle Eastern nationalisms and of nationalism itself. These essays are much more than just "pioneering" as Abbas Vali, the editor of the volume, modestly states. They are thoughtful works written by scholars who have researched, deliberated, and argued their respective positions for a long time. Readers will be deliciously injected into the primordialist, ethnicist, coherentist, constructivist-modernist, and historical materialist arguments regarding the origins and evolution of Kurdish nationalism and, by extension, of other nationalisms. The editor and contributors make clear that their topic and cutting-edge scholarship is an on-going debate.
The essays in this volume are, indeed, pioneering. They provide not only original theoretical constructs and innovative methodological inquires regarding the origins, evolution and condition of Kurdish nationalism, but in doing so contribute to the study of nationalism in general. These essays are also pioneering in that for the first time studies focused on Kurdish nationalism provide constructs, inquiries, and insights that should, and in my view will, prove influential in scholars' studies of other nationalisms, especially Arab, Turkish, Persian, Armenian, but also European, Asian, and African nationalisms.
These essays firmly anchor the study of Kurdish nationalism in the current and most persuasive historiography of the study of nationalisms. From now on, the study of "other" nationalisms will be influenced by the studies offered in this volume. This is an "about turn" that many of us in Kurdish studies have awaited for some time. Bravo! Abbas, Amir, Hamit, Martin and Nelida. Our hats are off to you!
Robert Olson
Abbas Vali
Essays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism
Mazda publishers
Mazda publishers, Inc. - Costa Mesa, California - 2003
Editorial board
Robert Olson, general editor
University of Kentucky
Shahrzad Mojab
University of Toronto
Amir Hassanpour
University of Toronto
Funding for the publication of this volume was provided by a grant from the Iranica Institute, Irvine California.
Mazda publishers, Inc.
Academic publishers since 1980
P.O. Box 2603
Costa Mesa, California 92628 U.S.A.
www.mazdapub.com
Copyright © 2003 by Mazda Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data
Essays on the Origins of Kurdish Nationalism / edited by Abbas Vali.
p.cm—(Kurdish studies series; No. 4)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 1-56859-142-X
( alk. paper)
1. Nationalism—Kurdistan. 2. Kurdistan—Politics and government.
I. Title: Kurdish nationalism. II. Vali, Abbas. III. Series.
DS59.K86E83 2003
320.54'089'91 597—dc21
2003044924
Notes on the Contributors
Hamit Bozarslan is associate professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of La question Kurde: etudes et minorities an Moyen-Orient (Paris, Sciences-Po, 1997) and numerous articles on Kurdish history and Turkish politics.
Martin van Bruinessen is professor of the comparative study of modern Muslim societies at Utrecht University. He is the author of Agha, shaikh and state (London, Zed press 1992) ; Kurdish ethno-nationalism versus nation-building states (Istanbul, ISIS Press 2000) and Kurds and identity politics (London, I.B. Tauris publishers, forthcoming 2002).
Nelida Fuccaro is assistant professor of history at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. She is the author of The other Kurds: Yazidis in colonial Iraq (London, I.B.Tauris Publishers 1999), and articles on aspects of religion and culture in Kurdistan.
Amir Hassanpour is assistant professor at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilisations, University of Toronto. He is the author of Nationalism and language 1918-1985 (San Francisco, Mellen Research University Press 1992), and numerous articles on aspects of Kurdish history and culture.
Abbas Vali is associate professor of modern Middle Eastern politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Wales, Swansea. He is the author of Pre-capitalist Iran: a theoretical history (London, I. B. Tauris publishers 1993) and Modernity and the stateless: the Kurdish question in Iran (London, I. B. Tauris publishers, forthcoming 2002).
